Just Looking At Your Body May Relieve Your Pain, Say Researchers

When you have to get a vaccine or give blood, do you look at the needle or away from it? I'm the type who not only has to look anywhere but my arm when giving blood--I also have to keep up a steady stream of babble so that I keep breathing and don't faint. (This just in: I am ridiculous.) In any case, researchers may have found some evidence that, if you want to control how much that shot (or other pain) hurts, you should look right at it.

A study in the journalPsychological Science revealed the interesting results of several power-of-the-mind-on-pain experiments.

Study participants had "heat probes" placed on their left hands, and the heat was gradually turned up until the participants felt it was too much pain. (Who else is glad they weren't part of this study? Anyway!) While the temperatures were increasing, participants either watched their own hand, or a wooden object. When they were looking at their hand, participants' pain threshold was about 3�?C higher.

According to Patrick Haggard, one of the researchers: "Many psychological therapies for pain focus on the painful stimulus; for example, by changing expectations, or by teaching distraction techniques. However, thinking beyond the stimulus that causes pain, to the body itself, may have novel therapeutic implications."

What do you think--do you believe that the mind can control pain? Do you have any tried-and-true methods for psyching yourself up (or out!) for something like a shot?